Issue on E4S page: ParaView Quick Start

[maherou]

Please describe the problem with this page:

https://E4S-Project.github.io/quick-start-paraview/

When going through the steps of this quickstart page, I ran into a problem when executing part of Step 3:

spack install paraview +mpi ^mpich

The output log is long but I think this is the relevant part:

==> mesa: Executing phase: 'meson'
==> Error: ProcessError: Command exited with status 1:
'/spack/opt/spack/linux-aarch64/meson-1.8.5-wsimwaliw4mstunpozu7jnt4vyqwsl47/bin/meson' 'setup' '/tmp/root/spack-stage/spack-stage-mesa-25.0.5-zrovud3inr5at76x43ez2arzaz5scwxf/spack-src' '-Dprefix=/spack/opt/spack/linux-aarch64/mesa-25.0.5-zrovud3inr5at76x43ez2arzaz5scwxf' '-Dlibdir=/spack/opt/spack/linux-aarch64/mesa-25.0.5-zrovud3inr5at76x43ez2arzaz5scwxf/lib' '-Dbuildtype=release' '-Dstrip=false' '-Ddefault_library=shared' '-Dwrap_mode=nodownload' '-Dvulkan-drivers=' '-Dgallium-vdpau=disabled' '-Dgallium-va=disabled' '-Dgallium-xa=disabled' '-Dgallium-nine=false' '-Dgallium-opencl=disabled' '-Dbuild-tests=false' '-Dglvnd=false' '-Dlibunwind=disabled' '-Dosmesa=true' '-Dglx=xlib' '-Degl=disabled' '-Dgbm=disabled' '-Dopengl=true' '-Dgles1=disabled' '-Dgles2=disabled' '-Dshared-glapi=enabled' '-Dllvm=disabled' '-Dplatforms=x11' '-Dgallium-drivers=swrast'

1 error found in build log:
164 Checking for function "pthread_setaffinity_np" with dependency threads: YES
165 Run-time dependency expat found: YES 2.7.3
166 Library m found: YES
167 Run-time dependency libdrm found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)
168 Run-time dependency libudev found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)
169

170 ../spack-src/meson.build:1845:2: ERROR: Problem encountered: llvmpipe requires LLVM and is enabled, but LLVM is disabled.
171
172 A full log can be found at /tmp/root/spack-stage/spack-stage-mesa-25.0.5-zrovud3inr5at76x43ez2arzaz5scwxf/spack-build-zrovud3/meson-logs/meson-log.
txt

See build log for details:
/tmp/root/spack-stage/spack-stage-mesa-25.0.5-zrovud3inr5at76x43ez2arzaz5scwxf/spack-build-out.txt

==> Warning: Skipping build of glx-1.4-weco6alm7i5jp2vt2ruk5rupdza63doc since mesa-25.0.5-zrovud3inr5at76x43ez2arzaz5scwxf failed
==> Warning: Skipping build of qt-5.15.16-w23uzsvd6w5sv2qd7qkgtfi4rwabl5qc since glx-1.4-weco6alm7i5jp2vt2ruk5rupdza63doc failed
==> Warning: Skipping build of paraview-5.13.3-dq44d6wy4spvxamrkdgorghp5mn3jcou since qt-5.15.16-w23uzsvd6w5sv2qd7qkgtfi4rwabl5qc failed
==> Warning: Skipping build of glew-2.2.0-3qt72mllxi4zniqzmzacuw5ykeb6zmw7 since glx-1.4-weco6alm7i5jp2vt2ruk5rupdza63doc failed

[wspear]

The issue seems to be that recent versions of mesa want llvmpipe even if ~llvm is specified. Pinning the latest 23 series release of mesa gets us past this issue:
spack install paraview +mpi ^mpich^mesa@23.3.6~llvm

~llvm should be the default but I wanted to be explicit, because we don't want anyone sitting around waiting for llvm to build. the qt dependency takes a while as it is (and is in fact still building as I write this). Adding graphical support to a container can be somewhat precarious, in my experience. Hopefully everything just works but I'll post an update if we can't get a GUI to launch (or if we hit any more build snags before we reach that point).

[maherou]

Thanks, Wyatt.  On Jun 5, 2026, at 7:00 PM, wspear ***@***.***> wrote:wspear left a comment (E4S-Project/E4S-Project.github.io#44) The issue seems to be that recent versions of mesa want llvmpipe even if ~llvm is specified. Pinning the latest 23 series release of mesa gets us past this issue: spack install paraview +mpi ***@***.***~llvm ~llvm should be the default but I wanted to be explicit, because we don't want anyone sitting around waiting for llvm to build. the qt dependency takes a while as it is (and is in fact still building as I write this). Adding graphical support to a container can be somewhat precarious, in my experience. Hopefully everything just works but I'll post an update if we can't get a GUI to launch (or if we hit any more build snags before we reach that point). —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[wspear]

There were a couple false starts here. The build with the lower version of mesa failed because (I think) paraview couldn't find what it needed in the version of qt that was built... but I didn't bother to investigate because, quite sensibly, this demo doesn't use the gui from the container. In fact, according to 'spack info', qt should be off by default anyway, which would have bypassed this issue entirely and I'm not sure how it was activated. So I rebuilt without the ui (~qt) which completed... and then I built it again with python so we would have pvpython and now I am pleased to report that this spec actually works for the demo:

spack install paraview +mpi ~qt +python ^mpich

This issue can be resolved when the quickstart page is updated accordingly.

[eugeneswalker]

As part of E4S 26.06, ParaView +qt will be in the binary cache and installable entirely from binary, if user wishes, inside the minimal container. Finishing up the release this week. We can update docs.

[maherou]

Thank you.Michael ***@***.***+1 320 905 1275https://maherou.github.io On Jun 7, 2026, at 8:22 PM, eugeneswalker ***@***.***> wrote:eugeneswalker left a comment (E4S-Project/E4S-Project.github.io#44) As part of E4S 26.06, ParaView +qt will be in the binary cache and installable entirely from binary, if user wishes, inside the minimal container. Finishing up the release this week. We can update docs. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[wspear]

Paraview+qt is now available in the binary repo and installs and launches its UI successfully in an internal test build of our minimal e4s docker image. We should have a public facing release with this version available soon.